THE IRAN PLATEAU AND ARABIA
The countries of the Iran plateau extend from the Mediterranean Sea to
the valley of the Indus River. The Arabian Peninsula is not a part of
it, but its climate and general character are similar. The Iran
countries are exceedingly rugged, and a great part of their surface is
more than a mile above sea-level. The climate is one of great extremes;
the summer hot-waves and the winter hurricanes are probably unknown
elsewhere in severity. The greater part of Arabia is an unhabitable
desert.
[Illustration: THE RUG-MAKING COUNTRIES]
The rigorous conditions of surface and climate have placed their stamp
upon the population of the region. They are full of the intelligent
cunning and ferocity that mark people living under such conditions of
environment. In many parts the sterile soil and arid climate force the
sparse population into nomadic habits of life and predatory pursuits.
For the greater part, the land hardly yields enough food-stuffs for the
population, and any great development of agriculture is out of the
question. The flood-plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, and a few of the
river-valleys are highly productive.
[Illustration: AN ANTIQUE TREE-OF-LIFE, KERMANSHAH (PERSIAN) RUG]
Before the Christian era several trade-routes between Europe and the
Orient lay across this region, and along the caravan routes there were
the usual industries pertaining to commercial peoples. The cities of
Sinope, Trebizond, Astrabad, Phasis, Mashad, and Bactra (now Balkh) grew
into existence along one of the northern routes. Tyre, Nineveh, Tarsus,
Palmyra, Babylon, and Persepolis were founded along one or another of
the southern routes. Of these, Trebizond only retains its importance,
being a seaport with a considerable trade. The commerce that once passed
over this route was crushed out of existence during the invasions by
Jenghis Khan.
[Illustration: A KABISTAN RUG--CAUCASUS DISTRICT]
Of the various industries of the Iran plateau, practically but one
extends beyond its borders, namely, the manufacture of the textile
fabrics known as Oriental rugs. These are unique; they are made of
materials, colored with dyes, and are ornamented with designs that
cannot be successfully imitated anywhere else in the world. The filling
of the rugs consists of fine wool, selected not only from particular
localities, but also from certain parts of the fleece. The dye-stuffs
are common to other parts of the world, and their names--indigo,
saffron, coccus, madder, and orchil--are familiar. But both the wool and
the dye-stuffs possess qualities imparted to them by soil and climate
that are not found elsewhere.
The absence of floors, and of the furniture found in European dwellings,
make the rugs essential household articles rather than luxuries. The
hearth-rug, the bath-mat, the divan-cover, the sleeping-blanket, and the
saddle-mat must be regarded as necessities. Religion also has its
requirements, and the prayer rug, sometimes ornamented with the hands of
the Prophet, is a part of every household equipment, whether of the
nomadic Arab or the wealthy merchant. Each district and people have
their own designs and methods of workmanship, and the rugs of each are
easily distinguished.[76]
For the greater part these are gathered by caravans and conveyed to
convenient shipping-points. Nearly all the cottage-made product is
obtained in this manner. As a rule the rugs are named from the town or
district in which they are made. Smyrna and Constantinople are the chief
ports of shipment. Many of them find their way to European dealers, but
New York is probably the largest rug-market in the world. The great
majority are retailed at from ten to fifty dollars each; choice
fabrics, however, bring from three hundred to ten thousand dollars.
Oriental rugs are hand-woven, and a weaver frequently spends several
years on a single piece, earning perhaps less than ten cents a day. The
factory-made rugs are inferior to the cottage-manufactured product.
=Turkish Possessions.=--Anatolia is the common name of the Turkish
possession formerly known as Asia Minor. The name properly belongs,
however, to only a small part of the region. The Asiatic possessions of
the Ottoman Empire comprise Asia Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan, Syria,
Mesopotamia, and Arabia. The Armenians are the commercial people of the
greater part of this region, and although thousands have been massacred
because of Turkish hatred of them, they practically wield the chief
power because of their business enterprise.
During the Roman occupation many miles of roads were built from
Constantinople and other coast-points to the interior. One of these
extended to Mesopotamia, and became a much-travelled route of the trade
which centred at Constantinople. Within recent years German capitalists
have built railways along these roads, thereby creating a considerable
export trade in fruit, rugs, and mohair cloth.
_Angora_ and _Konieh_ (_Iconium_) are important marts. _Trebizond_ is
the chief port of the Black Sea, but it lacks railway connections with
the interior. _Smyrna_ is the chief port of the Mediterranean, and from
it are shipped to European and American markets the fruit and textile
fabrics that have made its importance. In Syria, _Damascus_, one of the
oldest cities in the world, is the centre of a considerable trade in
textile manufactures. Rugs, dates, figs, and damask fabrics are exported
to Europe through _Beirut_, its seaport, with which it is connected by
rail. Much of the stuffs exported is gathered from Persia. _Yafa_ is
the port of Jerusalem. _Bagdad_ is the chief trade-centre of
Mesopotamia.
=Arabia.=--Arabia is nominally a Turkish possession, but the coast-regions
only are under the control of the Sultan. The interior is peopled by
nomadic tribes, who do not acknowledge the sovereignty of Turkey. The
province of Yemen, on the Red Sea, is about the only noteworthy part of
the peninsula. Hides and Mocha coffee, gathered by Arab traders, are
shipped from the port of _Hodeida_. _Mecca_ is the yearly meeting-place
of thousands of Mohammedan pilgrims, who go thither as a religious duty;
it is also the centre from which Asiatic cholera radiates. _Aden_, the
chief coaling-station of the British Empire in the Indian Ocean, is also
a free port, having a considerable trade in American cotton and
coal-oil.
Although Arabia itself is practically of no commercial importance, the
same cannot be said of the Arabic people. They are keen, thrifty
traders, and as brutal in their instincts as they are keen. The commerce
which connects the western part of Asia with Europe is largely of their
making. They collect and transport the goods from the interior,
delivering them to Jewish and Armenian middlemen, who turn them over to
European and American merchants. Arab traders also control the greater
part of the commerce of northern Africa. The slave-trade, which is
wholly in their hands, is very largely the key to the situation. A party
of slave-dealers makes an attack upon a village and, after massacring
all who are not able-bodied, load the rest with the goods to be
transported to the coast.
=Persia.=--Persia is the modernized name of the province now called Fars,
or Farsistan. Within its borders, however, the name Persia is almost
unknown; the native people call the country Iran. In the times of
Cyrus, Xerxes, and Darius, Persia was one of the great powers of the
world. The cultivable lands produced an abundance of food-stuffs. The
mines of copper, lead, silver, and iron were worked to their utmost
extent, and the chief trade-routes between Europe and the Orient crossed
the country to the Indus River.
The conquest by Alexander the Great changed the course of trade and
diverted it to other routes, thus depriving the country of much of its
revenue; the invasions of the Arabs left the empire a hopeless wreck.
Iran blood dominates the country at the present time, it is true, but
the religion of Islam does not encourage any material development, and
the industries are now purely local. There is no organization of trade,
nor any system of transportation except by means of wretched wagon-roads
with innumerable toll-gates. "Turkish" tobacco, opium, and small fruits
are grown for export; silk and wool, however, are the most important
crops. The former is manufactured into brocaded textiles; the latter
into rugs and carpets. There are famous pearl-fisheries in the Persian
Gulf.
_Tabriz_, situated in the midst of an agricultural region, has important
manufactures of shawls and silk fabrics of world renown. The Tabriz rugs
are regarded as among the finest of the rug-maker's art. _Shiraz_, the
former capital, _Kermanshah_,[77] and _Hamadan_ are noted for rug and
carpet manufactures. _Mashad_ is the centre of the trade with Russia.
_Bushire_ and _Bender-Abbas_ are seaports, but have no great importance.
Most of the trade with Russia passes through the port of Trebizond.
=Afghanistan.=--The nomadic tribes that inhabit Afghanistan have but
little in common with the British civilization that is slowly but surely
closing in upon them, and driving them from routes of commerce. A
considerable local traffic is carried on between Bokhara and Herat, and
between Bokhara and Kabul through Balkh, all being fairly prosperous
centres of population in regions made productive by irrigation.
By far the most important route lies between Kabul and Peshawur, at the
head of the Indus River. A railway, the Sind-Pishin, extends along the
valley of this river from Karachi, a port of British India, to Peshawur,
also in British India near the Afghan border, and the route lies thence
through Khaibar Pass to Jelalabad and Kabul. A branch of this road is
completed through Bolan Pass nearly to Kandahar.
_Kabul_, the capital, is a military stronghold rather than a business
centre, although it is a collection depot for the Khiva-Bokhara rugs and
carpets that are marketed at Peshawur. _Kandahar_ has a growing trade
resulting from the railway of the Indus Valley. _Herat_ is the market of
the famous Herati rugs. There is no organized commercial system; a small
amount of British manufactures--mainly stuffs for domestic use--are
imported; rugs and dried fruit are the only exports to Europe and
America. The imports enter mainly by way of Karachi, India; the exports
are carried to Europe, for the greater part, by the Russian railway.
The importance of Afghanistan is due to its position as a buffer state
between Russia and British India. The various strategic points for
years, therefore, have been military strongholds. There is an old
saying: "Whoso would be master of India must first make himself lord of
Kabul." The meaning of this is seen in the history of Khaibar Pass,
which for many years has been a scene of slaughter; indeed, it has been
the chief gateway between occidental and oriental civilizations for
more than twenty centuries. Since the acquisition of India by Great
Britain Afghanistan has been under British protectoracy.
=Baluchistan.=--The general features of Baluchistan resemble those of the
other parts of the Iran plateau. The coast has no harbors in the proper
sense, but the anchorage off _Gwador_ has fair protection from storms
and heavy winds. The few valleys produce enough food-stuffs for the
half-savage population. There is but little organization to the
government save that which is military in character. The state is a
protectorate of Great Britain.
Rug-making is the only industry that connects Baluchistan with the rest
of the world. _Quetta_, the largest town, is a military station
controlling Bolan Pass. Its outlet is the Kandahar branch of the
Sind-Pishin Railway.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What climatic factors prevent these countries from being regions of
great production?
How do climate and soil affect the character of the wool clip?
How do Arabian horses compare with American thorough-bred stock with
respect to usefulness?--how do they compare with the mustang stock?
Why is Khaibar Pass regarded as the key to India?
FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
From a cyclopædia (or from McCarthy's History of Our Own Times) read an
account of the British disaster at Kabul.
Study, if possible, one or more rugs of the following kinds, noting the
colors, designs, and warp of each: Bokhara (antique and modern),
Anatolian, Kermanshah, and Baluchistan.